WELCOME to #TheatreClique — my emphatically intermittent newsletter dedicated to encouraging you to click out to some of the most interesting, intriguing & noteworthy writing about drama, theatre & performance (at least, so says me)…

This Week's #TheatreCliquery:

This installment of #TheatreClique clicks out to pieces that map how the shared experience of in/visibility can forge a potent collaborative community, that offer a potent reflection on faith as “doubt with a positive attitude,” and that mark a potent loss within the theatre community. My commentary on my recent theatregoing adventures should begin as early as next week but this edition does re/introduce what I expect in 2026 will be my monthly feature lifting #MomentsOfFornésiana. But for this week’s opener, I lift Cyndi Lauper’s recent performance/s at her induction to Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, because — really — it’s never not a good time to listen as La Cyndi reminds us that, yes, indeed, we can be a community of light…and if clicking the embedded image below routes to an error message, try clicking here.

EDITOR’S NOTE: whenever possible, whenever linking to paywalled pieces, I try to “gift” the article to #TheatreClique readers. In other words, clicking out to articles in the New York Times, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Atlantic, and Wall Street Journal should neither present hassle nor burn through your current allotment of free views. Here’s hoping more outlets — hello LATimes! hi NewYorkMagazine! yo NewYorker!— adopt similar technologies for subscribers soon...

#NowClickThis…

Wherein I highlight a handful of the most click-worthy links I’ve encountered in the last few…

• at American Theatre, playwright/memoirist Sarah Ruhl brings me to tears with her reflections on in/visible disabilities and the collaborative community forged in creating the new musical Wonder;

• Stage Left Reports’s Sophia Pessetti compiles a list of “The Most Cursed Moments In The Theater Industry 2025”;

• at The Hat, theatre/culture writer Tim Teeman reports on how “Audience desires and tastes appear to be driving more experimentation from theaters and producers around scheduling” performance times;

• The Hollywood Reporter’s McKinley Franklin interviews 10 of the 17 winners of RuPaul’s Drag Race — including theatre artists Jinkx Monsoon, Bianca Del Rio, Bob the Drag Queen, and Sasha Velour — about their experiences before, during, and after being crowned;

• at Another Eye Opens, veteran arts journalist Don Shewey continues to share treasures “from the deep archive” of his work by sharing this 1985 American Theatre profile of a then-early-career actor by the name of John Malkovich;

• at Extended Play, freelance theatre journalist Joey Sims talks to writer/performer Iraisa Anne Reilly about her solo show A Bodega Princess Remembers La Fiesta de Los Reyes Magos, 1998 and “Spanish-language variety shows, Latino influence on ‘90s American culture and finding herself as a playwright”;

• Singer/actor and “Budding Cabaret Star & Famous Server” Gilbert D. Sanchez launches the inaugural issue of A Zilby Zine;

• and, at Advice for Men, memoirist/storyteller (and erstwhile men’s magazine columnist) John DeVore offers what might just be my mantra for 2026: “Faith is doubt with a positive attitude.” Seriously. Anybody want to sew that on a pillow for me?

• and, at BroadwayWorld, The Drama League shares the devastating news that “The Drama League’s Associate Artistic Director Nilan passed away on January 4, 2026, due to a sudden illness involving complications from the flu.” I didn't know Nilan especially well but I so appreciated the embrace of his presence, the clarity of his attention and — perhaps most profoundly — the rigor of his shade. In nearly every conversation we had, no matter how brief, Nilan would toss in an incisive aside that would percolate in my thoughts for days (and, in one notable instance, months). A remarkable force whose absence is already palpable to me. Blessings, dear Nilan, blessings...

#Moments of Fornésiana:

Wherein I highlight noteworthy recent or upcoming engagements with the life, work and legacy of legendary playwright, director and teacher María Irene Fornés...

At Pocket Theatre, or slow news from old wars, playwright/educator/translator/theorist Caridad Svich ponders how the “present tense” work (and way of working) modeled by María Irene Fornés might re/orient us in a theatrical moment rich with play after play “that spends most of its running time delving into back stories rather than acknowledging the present tense of its figures or characters…where the back story is ALL.” Svich writes:

Subscribe to Svich’s Pocket Theatre HERE.

And be sure to let me know when you pitch in a penny or two to this month’s #NowFundThis challenge on behalf of The Outrage Residency for Queer Writers…

TRANSPARENCY DISCLOSURES for #260112: Gilbert Sanchez was a sometime student of mine during their time at the University of New Mexico. John DeVore, Caridad Svich, and Iraisa Anne Reilly are valued professional colleagues.

WELCOME to #TheatreClique — my emphatically intermittent newsletter dedicated to encouraging you to click out to some of the most interesting, intriguing & noteworthy writing about drama, theatre & performance (at least, so says me)…

This Week's #TheatreCliquery:

This installment of #TheatreClique clicks out to pieces that ask questions about theatre in 2026, introduce a nonagenarian Mummers Parade superfan, and ponder the persistent craving to “matter” in the eyes of peers, colleagues, and alumni magazines. And though this edition includes no commentary on any recent productions (as my 2026 theatregoing has yet to commence), it does re/introduce the first of what I expect in 2026 will be a monthly #NowFundThis challenge wherein I invite #TheatreClique readers to support a worthy crowdfunding initiative. But for this week’s opener — and in anticipation of Dolly Parton’s 80th birthday on January 19 — I lift this Big80s clip from Dolly’s regrettably short-lived (but brilliant) 1987-88 tv variety show Dolly, in which she welcomes her collaborators Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris to sing one of my favorite tracks from Trio, one of my all-time favorite albums… and if clicking the embedded image below routes to an error message, try clicking here.

EDITOR’S NOTE: whenever possible, whenever linking to paywalled pieces, I try to “gift” the article to #TheatreClique readers. In other words, clicking out to articles in the New York Times, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Atlantic, and Wall Street Journal should neither present hassle nor burn through your current allotment of free views. Here’s hoping more outlets — hello LATimes! hi NewYorkMagazine! yo NewYorker!— adopt similar technologies for subscribers soon...

#NowClickThis…

Wherein I highlight a handful of the most click-worthy links I’ve encountered in the last few…

• New York Theater’s Jonathan Mandell continues his annual tradition of “ask[ing] a different set of questions about the forthcoming year in theater every New Year’s Day” by posing 10 Questions About Theater in 2026;

• at From Behind the Table, Chicago-based casting director/dramaturg Catherine Miller coordinates a collaborative “list of things we loved” 2025 Chicago Theatre Year in Review — “made by contributors from all areas of our gorgeous Chicago theatre community”;

• People’s Dave Quinn reports on the announcement that Tony-nominated singer/actor/athlete Derek Klena has signed with the Savannah Bananas — “the breakout baseball team [that] blends athletic competition with full-scale entertainment”;

• The New York Times’s critic-at-large Salamishah Tillet surveys a selection of notable recent works — including the Ragtime revival alongside the films Sinners and One Battle After Another, as well as TV’s The Lowdown — for how they engage the question of white solidarity in their explorations of racial injustice;

• at Squiggle & Heart, artist/advocate Lynne Marie Rosenberg ponders the persistent craving “to matter” in the eyes of peers, colleagues, the world, and — yes — even alumni magazines;

• The New York Sun’s A.R. Hoffman insists that “[a]ny opportunity to encounter the work of the Yiddish poet Avrom Sutzkever is to be seized” in a review of the Congress for Jewish culture’s production of Night Stories: Four Tales of Reanimation;

• The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Ximena Conde profiles “Queen Mumm” — aka Avril Davidge, a 93 year old Welsh superfan of Philadelphia’s Mummers Day parade who made her first trip to experience the parade in person this year;

#NowFundThis ~ This Month’s #TheatreClique Fundraising Challenge:

Wherein I spotlight a notable current or ongoing crowdfunding campaign…

I hereby issue what I expect in 2026 to be a monthly #NowFundThis challenge to all y’all 1: for every individual contribution made by a #TheatreClique reader to the Outrage crowdfunding campaign in the month of January 2026, I will personally contribute an additional $5.

As playwright/organizer C. Julian Jiménez explains, “The Outrage was born out of a need for a space where queer writers can be in community, write, and share for intentional and honest feedback. Queer writers are often faced with the challenge of explaining Queerness before receiving tangible notes. The Outrage is an environment for craft exploration by providing a safe space for risk-taking and imagination.

Just take a screenshot of your confirmation receipt and email it to me OR text me OR tag me OR comment or OR whatever… just be sure to let me know that you pledged/contributed/donated somehow. Simply contribute ANY amount and I’ll add another $5 to #TheatreClique’s donation.

TRANSPARENCY DISCLOSURES for #261205: Lynne Marie Rosenberg and I are friends, professional colleagues, and occasional collaborators; same, too, for C. Julian Jiménez.

WELCOME to #TheatreClique — my emphatically intermittent newsletter dedicated to encouraging you to click out to some of the most interesting, intriguing & noteworthy writing about drama, theatre & performance (at least, so says me)…

My 2025 Theatregoing Log :: A Reference Index

A sequential list of those productions I engaged in the calendar year of 2025. My practice of sharing my show comments began in June 2025, so the show list below links to my #TheatreClique commentary beginning with show #72.

1. Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library :: Luna Stage at WP Theatre - NYC

2. Elf :: Marriot Marquis - NYC

3. Romeo + Juliet :: Circle in the Square - NYC

4. Gypsy :: The Majestic - NYC

5. Takeover Brunch with Crystal Envy & Sapphira Cristal :: Fabrika - Philadelphia

6. Death Becomes Her :: Lunt-Fontanne - NYC

7. Here There Are Blueberries :: McCarter - Princeton

8. Kowalski :: The Duke on 42nd - NYC

9. A Knock on the Roof :: NYTW - NYC

10. Scenes of Connection :: Lewis Center for the Arts - Princeton

11. Rupaul’s Drag Race Live :: The Flamingo - Las Vegas (NV)

12. Chippendales :: Mat Franco Theater @ The LINQ - Las Vegas (NV)

13. Illuminate :: The STRAT Theatre - Las Vegas (NV)

14. Beckett’s Briefs :: Irish Repertory - NYC

15. Liberation :: Roundabout @ Laura Pels Theatre - NYC

16. Bitchcraft :: The Wild Project - NYC

17. English :: Roundabout - NYC

18. My Man Kono :: Pan Asian Rep @ ART NYC - NYC

19. Redwood :: Nederlander - NYC

20. Garside’s Career :: Mint Theatre - NYC

21. Conversations With My Mother :: Theatre 555 - NYC

22. The Price :: Village Theatre Group @ Theatre at St. Clement’s - NYC

23. Night Side Songs :: Philadelphia Theatre Company - Philadelphia

24. Grangeville :: Signature Theatre Company - NYC

25. Amerikin :: Primary Stages - NYC

26. Harriet & Irene: Infinite Muses :: Lewis Center for the Arts - Princeton

27. Truffle Pigs :: Lewis Center for the Arts - Princeton

28. 27 Rue De Fleurus :: Lewis Center for the Arts - Princeton

29. Legacy of Light :: McCarter - Princeton

30. Sunset Blvd :: St. James - NYC

31. Buena Vista Social Club :: Schoenfeld - NYC

32. Sumo :: Public Theater - NYC

33. Deep Blue Sound :: Clubbed Thumb @ Public Theater - NYC

34. The Jonathan Larsen Project :: Orpheum - NYC

35. The Picture of Dorian Gray :: Music Box - NYC

36. Purpose :: Helen Hayes - NYC

37. John Proctor Is The Villain :: Booth - NYC

38. The Swamp Dwellers :: TFANA - NYC

39. The Last Five Years :: Hudson - NYC

40. Smash :: Imperial - NYC

41. Stranger Things: The First Shadow :: Marriott Marquis - NYC

42. Macbeth in Stride :: Lewis Center for the Arts - Princeton

43. We Had a World :: Manhattan Theatre Club - NYC

44. Boop :: Broadhurst - NYC

45. Turds in Hell :: EgoPo @ Theatre Exile - Philadelphia

46. A Midsummer Night’s Dream :: Lewis Center for the Arts - Princeton

47. Glass. Kill. What If If Only. Imp. :: Public Theater - NYC

48. Wine In The Wilderness :: Classic Stage Company - NYC

49. Macbeth in Stride :: BAM Harvey - NYC

50. Real Women Have Curves :: James Earl Jones - NYC

51. Potluck in Concert :: David Rubenstein Atrium - NYC

52. January 6: Bodega Princess :: The Louis Bluver Theatre at The Drake - Philadelphia

53. Operation Mincemeat :: Golden - NYC

54. Old Friends :: Samuel Friedman - NYC

55. Pirates! The Penzance Musical :: Todd Haimes / Roundabout - NYC

56. All the World’s a Stage :: Theatre Row - NYC

57. Titanique :: Daryl Roth - NYC

58. Dead Outlaw :: Longacre - NYC

59. Hold Me in the Water :: Playwrights Horizon - NYC

60. All Nighter :: MCC Theater - NYC

61. I’m Assuming You Know David Greenspan :: Atlantic - NYC

62. Floyd Collins :: Vivian Beaumont - NYC

63. Archduke :: Wilma - Philadelphia

64. Irishtown :: Irish Repertory - NYC

65. Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse :: The New Group - NYC

66. Primary Trust :: McCarter - Princeton

67. Real Women Have Curve :: James Earl Jones - NYC

68. Just in Time :: Circle in the Square - NYC

69. Rheology :: Bushwick Starr - NYC

70. Business Ideas :: ClubbedThumb/Summerworks @ The Wild Project - NYC

71. Goddess :: Public Theater - NYC

72. Death Becomes Her :: Lunt-Fontanne - NYC

73. Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse :: The New Group - NYC

74. Call Me Izzy :: Studio54 - NYC

75. OK! :: INTAR - NYC

76. Lights Out: Nat King Cole :: NYTW - NYC

77. Not Not Janes :: ClubbedThumb/Summerworks @ The Wild Project - NYC

78. Small Ball :: Philadelphia Theatre Company - Philadelphia

79. A Summer Day :: Wilma - Philadelphia

80. Chiaroscuro :: National Black Theatre @ TheFlea - NYC

81. Bowl EP :: National Black Theater @ Vineyard - NYC

82. RENT :: Arden - Philadelphia

83. Dead Outlaw :: Longacre - NYC

84. Eurydice :: Signature - NYC

85. Cold War Choir Practice :: ClubbedThumb/Summerworks @ The Wild Project - NYC

86. Friki Nation :: Criminal Queerness @ Here Arts - NYC

87. Trophy Boys :: MCC Theatre - NYC

88. Prince F*ggot :: Playwrights Horizon - NYC

89. Out of Order :: East Village Basement - NYC

90. Low Country :: Atlantic - NYC

91. Joy: A New True Musical :: Laura Pels - NYC

92. Winning Is Winning :: Hoi Polloi @ JACK - NYC

93. Cabaret at The KitKat Club :: August Wilson - NYC

94. Josh Sharp’s Ta-Da! :: Greenwich House - NYC

95. Minor History of Major Homosexuals :: Hot! @ Dixon Place - NYC

96. Moulin Rouge!: The Musical :: Al Hirschfeld - NYC

97. Beau: The Musical :: OOTB @ Theatre154 - NYC

98. Spongebob The Musical :: Music Mountain Theatre - Lambertville (NJ)

99. Joy: A New True Musical :: Laura Pels - NYC

100. Heathers: The Musical :: New World Stages - NYC

101. Can I Be Frank? :: Soho Playhouse - NYC

102. Half-Life :: Moxie Arts - NYC

103. Ginger Twinsies:: Orpheum - NYC

104. Voice Lesson :: Princeton Summer Theatre - Princeton

105. Lili/Darwin :: TheTank - NYC

106. Macbeth :: Obedient Madness Players @ Princeton Public Library - Princeton

107. Take a Banana for the Ride :: Nederlander - NYC

108. A Strange Loop :: Actor’s Express - Atlanta

109. Ain’t No Mo’ :: True Colors - Atlanta

110. Oh Mary! :: Lyceum - NYC

111. Well I’ll Let You Go :: The Space at Irondale - NYC

112. House of McQueen :: TheMansion @ HudsonYards - NYC

113. Exorcistic :: AsylumNYC - NYC

114. The Zoo Story :: RuthStage @ Jersey Shore Arts - Ocean Grove (NJ)

115. Einstein’s Begonia :: Princeton Public Library - Princeton

116. The Brothers Size :: The Shed - NYC

117. Viola’s Room :: PunchDrunk @ TheShed - NYC

118. Galas :: Little Island - NYC

119. Art :: The Music Box - NYC

120. Sober Songs :: TheatreRow - NYC

121. Saturday Church :: NYTW - NYC

122. I & You :: McCarter - Princeton

123. Mexodus :: Audible/MinettaLn - NYC

124. Color Theories :: PSNY - NYC

125. The Other Americans :: The Public Theater - NYC

126. Primary Trust :: Philadelphia Theatre Company - Philadelphia

127. figaro/f*ggots :: Baryshnikov Arts - NYC

128. El Mentiroso :: Arts on Site - NYC

129. The Essentialisn’t :: HERE Arts - NYC

130. The Least Problematic Woman in the World :: Lortel - NYC

131. How to Live at the End of the World :: Lewis Center for the Arts - Princeton

132. Waiting for Godot :: Hudson Theatre - NYC

133. And Then We Were No More :: LaMama - NYC

134. Torera :: WP Theatre - NYC

135. At the Very Bottom of a Body of Water :: Lewis Center for the Arts - Princeton

136. Waiting for Godot :: Hudson Theatre - NYC

137. Weather Girl :: St Ann’s - NYC

138. Punch :: Samuel Friedman - NYC

139. Messy White Gays :: Duke on 42nd - NYC

140. Ragtime :: Lincoln Center - NYC

141. Other :: Greenwich House Theater - NYC

142. Crooked Cross :: Mint Theatre - NYC

143. The First 3 Minutes of 17 Shows :: Dixon Place - NYC

144. This Much I Know :: 59E59 - NYC

145. Little Bear Ridge Road :: Booth Theatre - NYC

146. Oratorio for Living Things :: Signature - NYC

147. Joan :: GreenRoom42 (Livestream) - NYC

148. Songs of the Living: Waterways & Work Songs :: SohoRep @ Snug Harbor Cultural Center - NYC

149. Polin: Child Of Possessions :: Lewis Center for the Arts - Princeton

150. The Bride & The Goodnight Cinderella :: Powerhouse Arts - NYC

151. Liberation :: James Earl Jones Theatre - NYC

152. Nothing Can Take You from the Hand of God :: Playwrights Horizons - NYC

153. Romy & Michelle: The Musical :: Stage42 - NYC

154. 300 Paintings :: McCarter - Princeton

155. Moment of Silence :: Lewis Center for the Arts - Princeton

156. Bat Boy: The Musical :: Encores @ CityCenter - NYC

157. Martha@BAM - The 1963 Interview :: BAM - NYC

158. Mrs. Warren’s Profession : NTLive - London/Princeton

159. Escalation Time :: Radicanct - NYC

160. Graveyard Shift :: Lewis Center for the Arts - Princeton

161. The Snow Queen :: Wilma - Philadelphia

162. Queens :: Manhattan Theatre Club - NYC

163. Practice :: Playwrights Horizons - NYC

164. Lawrence In Lahore :: Princeton Program in Gender & Sexuality Studies - Princeton

165. Richard II :: Red Bull - NYC

166. The Burning Cauldron Of Fiery Fire :: Vineyard - NYC

167. Initiative :: The Public - NYC

168. The Queen Of Versailles :: St. James - NYC

169. The F*ggots And Their Friends Between Revolutions :: Armory for Arts - NYC

170. Seat of Our Pants :: The Public - NYC

171. Messy White Gays :: Duke on 42nd - NYC

172. The Ziegfeld Files :: Studio Seaview - NYC

173. Oedipus :: Studio54 - NYC

174. Meet The Cartozians :: Second Stage - NYC

175. Beau The Musical :: Theatre at St. Luke’s - NYC

176. Don’t Vape!: The Grease Parody :: Theatre555 - NYC

177. Tartuffe :: NYTW - NYC

178. A Theater Of Death Christmas Carol :: KMRD-LP 96.9 - Madrid, NM

179. The Mystery Of Edwin Drood :: Santa Fe Playhouse - Santa Fe, NM

#TrackingTheTrends

A quick & dirty tally of some key data-points for my overall theatregoing in 2025.

1. AVERAGE RATE OF THEATREGOING FOR 2025: roughly 15 shows per month, at 3-4 shows per week.

2. CITIES : 139 shows in NYC; 21 shows in Princeton; 10 shows in Philadelphia; 3 shows in Las Vegas; 2 shows each in Atlanta, “NJ Beyond Princeton”, and Santa Fe. Roughly 75% of my 2025 Theatregoing engaged shows performed in NYC.

3. WHAT SHOWS FORCED ME TO BREAK MY NO-MORE-SHAKESPEARES RULE : #3/Romeo+Juliet; #46/Midsummer Night’s Dream; #106/Macbeth, #165/RichardII.

4. REMOTE/DIGITAL/AUDIO Performances : #147: Joan; #158: Mrs. Warren’s Profession (NTLive); #178: A Theater of Death Christmas Carol.

5. HOW MANY 3+ SHOW DAYS :

   1. EIGHT 3-Show Days: 29 March (#32-34); 26 April (#56-58); 5 June (#88-89); 10 September (#116-118); 27 September (#128-130); 18 October (#142-144); 25 October (#151-153); 13 December (#175-177).

   2. ONE 4-Show Day: 2 July (#100-103).

6. HOW MANY NO-SHOW WEEKS: Seven.

WELCOME to #TheatreClique — my emphatically intermittent newsletter dedicated to encouraging you to click out to some of the most interesting, intriguing & noteworthy writing about drama, theatre & performance (at least, so says me)…

This Week's #TheatreCliquery:

2025’s final installment of #TheatreClique clicks out to pieces that consider burnout as class grief, the interminable narcissism of institutional rejection letters, and the layers of hidden meaning in all that “theatre kid” discourse — plus commentary on recent productions Beau The Musical, Don’t Vape: The Grease Parody, Tartuffe, A Theater of Death Christmas Carol, and The Mystery of Edwin Drood. And for this week’s opener, I lift my favorite “new year’s” song: “Happy New Year” from ABBA…and if clicking the embedded image below routes to an error message, try clicking here.

EDITOR’S NOTE: whenever possible, whenever linking to paywalled pieces, I try to “gift” the article to #TheatreClique readers. In other words, clicking out to articles in the New York Times, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Atlantic, and Wall Street Journal should neither present hassle nor burn through your current allotment of free views. Here’s hoping more outlets — hello LATimes! hi NewYorkMagazine! yo NewYorker!— adopt similar technologies for subscribers soon...

#NowClickThis…

Wherein I highlight a handful of the most click-worthy links I’ve encountered in the last few…

• at No Intermission, actor/producer/writer Kat Kemmet excavates how “what is frequently labeled as burnout among working-class actors is not only fatigue. It is a form of class grief”;

• at The Fourth Wall, actor/advocate Matt Rodin (currently starring in Beau the Musical — see below) considers what the use of “theatre kid” as a pejorative label “reveals about how attention, performance, and care are operating in our culture right now”;

• at Another Eye Opens, veteran arts writer Don Shewey offers his “Culture Vulture 2025 in Review.”

• The Atlantic’s Helen Lewis considers how Oh Mary! plays for an British audience fluent in the conventions, style, and gender-crossings of panto, a “populist British stage tradition [that] leans heavily on popular songs, risqué jokes, and melodrama, just like Oh, Mary!”;

• at Theatre Is Hard, playwright/producer Sara Harrington makes several (brilliant) “reasonable requests” of institutional theatres currently crafting their annual raft of “narcissistic” rejection letters;

• and the anonymously-authored parody website TrumpKennedyCenter soft-launches to “invite you to experience culture as authority, pageantry as truth, and excellence as defined by those in power” in 2026.

Thoughts from That One Theatregoer Who Likes Pretty Much Everything:

Wherein I offer capsule commentaries on what I liked best — my HIGH-LIKES if you will — about the shows I’ve recently engaged...

#175: Beau The Musical

Book, Lyrics, & Concept by Douglas Lyons •Music by Ethan D. Pakchar & Douglas Lyons • Directed & Choreographed by Josh Rhodes • NYC : Off-Broadway • The Distillery at St. Luke’s Theatre • December 2025.

I so enjoyed my first encounter with Beau The Musical this summer, back when “The Distillery” was at the far end of Christopher Street that I wondered whether a return visit would be as gratifying. Well, dear reader, it was. And not only because Tony-nominee Jeb Brown had joined the production (in the titular role), but also because the St. Luke’s basement theatre promised to let director/choreographer Josh Rhodes’s semi-immersive staging (aka “The Distillery” — or the bar in which the play ostensibly takes place) to find a more expansive range of movement. And even though my two favorite summer ensemblists had left the production, this remount (?) of Beau confirmed what I suspected back in July. This is a solid little musical — with banging country-rock tunes and a rousingly heartfelt coming-to-age story. And with Jeb Brown’s distinctively irreverent gravitas as Beau serving as counterpoint to Matt Rodin’s open-hearted Ace (yes, the same Matt Rodin as linked above), the emotional hinges of the story work with even greater clarity. I stand by what I said back in July: “a rocking gem of a musical.”

See also:

• OUT Magazine’s Moises Mendez II talks to Beau’s stars — Jeb Brown and Matt Rodin — about what it means to them to bring “a queer coming-of-age story set in the heart of America” to the stage at this cultural moment;

• at La Voce di New York, freelance arts writer Elise Nussbaum details how Beau the Musical’s new staging “makes the most of its immersive small-venue concert setting.”

#176: Don’t Vape!: The Grease Parody

Book by Catie Hogan • Lyrics by Billy Recce & Danny Salles • Directed by Jack Plotnick • Choreographed by Ashley Marinelli • NYC : Off-Broadway • Theatre555 • December 2025.

I don’t know that anyone’s taken the time to write a history of the “parody musical” but it seems to me that there’s quite a tale to be told in tracking the genre’s evolution from topical/novelty numbers in the 1940s/50s/60s, through the rise of the Forbidden Broadway ouevre and the enduring tongue-in-cheek kitstchtaculars of the 1960s/70s/80s/90s, and even to Broadway’s mainstage in the 2000s/10s/20s. And though there seems to be no end of supply of these sometimes surprisingly long-running Off/Off-Broadway staples, that nagging “but how good are they really” question always hovers… And — after a fascinating protracted legal battle — Don’t Vape!: The Grease Parody confirms what might be four primary criteria for a successful parody musical. First, the source/reference material needs to be familiar but the jokes need to be original. Don’t Vape! tweaks the very familiar Grease songs with very clever lyrics from Billy Recce (one of the most musically clever parodists working today) and Danny Salles. Next, the cast must include vocal powerhouses, gifted comedians, and charismatic performers — ideally, wrapped in a single package like Don’t Vape!’s Scott Silagy who brilliantly executes the central role of Danny with a near perfect (and perfectly queer) balance of sweet vocals, sexy swagger, and utter stupidity. Also, a parody musical’s gotta know when (and how and why it’s necessary) to give a wink to the ridiculousness of the entire undertaking. Perhaps thanks to the actually quite sophisticated direction of Jack Plotnick, Don’t Vape! serves the requisite “wink” perhaps more deftly than any parody musical I’ve seen in some while — whether through Slee’s perimenopausal Rizzo, or Jen Clark’s quick-change double-casting gags, or the accident-prone Patty Simcox puppet, or even a whole song dedicated to the humiliations of starring in parody musicals. Finally, a gratifying parody musical kinda totally has to do all of this (with as high a jokes-per-minute ratio as possible) in a sweet 75-minutes or less… Don’t Vape! The Grease Parody hits on all four counts, making it a surprisingly gratifying bit of skillfully executed silliness.

See also:

• The New York Post’s Angela Barbuti elaborates on how Don’t Vape! “reimagines the beloved musical set in a 1950s high school as it would look in today’s woke world;”

• Times Square Chronicle’s Susannah Bowling praises Don’t Vape! as the “update we didn’t know we needed — a razor-sharp, laugh-out-loud parody that drags Rydell high kicking and singing into the 21st century.”

#177: Tartuffe

Written by Lucas Hnath, after the original play by Molière • Directed by Sarah Benson • NYC : Off-Broadway • New York Theatre Workshop • December 2025.

Adapting Molière is tricky. I say this because I’ve directed two Molière adaptations — the first, an original musical in college and, the second, a lesser-known gem by Charles Ludlam. But adapting Molière is tricky because, even in the most adventurous adaptations, all roads always return to Molière — his use of language, his approach to characterization (ie to suit the gifts/personalities of his company), the weird royal imperatives limiting him, and — perhaps most of all — his distinctive domino-toppling manner of setting up (and knocking down) dramatic tension. The genius of Lucas Hnath’s and Sarah Benson’s strategy in this Tartuffe is that they just embrace the Molière-ity of it all — the costumes, the set, the casting — while also keeping everything emphatically rooted in our shared contemporary moment. We are always in the 17th Century France of Louis XIV and in the 2025 America of Donald Trump. It’s a fascinating gambit, which doesn’t always yield. (That said, in my experience, Molière never does.) But this Tartuffe sticks far more landings than it whiffs, thanks in large part to the chaotic balance discovered and sustained by its stacked cast, each a bona-fide legend from a different corner of contemporary performance. In the title role, Matthew Broderick’s shambolic drollery (and QuakerOats guy costuming) somehow both covers and trumpets Tartuffe’s unrelenting egregiosity. Likewise, Bianca del Rio (as Orgon’s mother Madame Pernelle, a role originally also portrayed by gender-crossing disabled actor, Louis Béjart) glides with glamorous ease into the first scene, gleefully spitting spite and setting the evening’s comedic tone with righteous fervor. Lisa Kron, Francis Jue, and Amber Gray each bring their distinctive mode of comedic gravitas to the proceedings, while Ryan Haddad is — as always — an unfettered force of the funny. And nothing makes me happier than to see Emily Davis on a stage but who knew that the spectacle of Davis— corsetted, bewigged with the brattiest curls, and just wilting in the horror of her betrothal to Tartuffe — would provide one of my favorite moments of 2025? The play goes how it goes and, honestly, Tartuffe always makes for a somewhat sour swallow. But in the concluding moments of this Tartuffe, the ensemble assembles immediately after the play’s legal/moral/economic crises have been ostensibly unsnarled to sing a doleful anthem to entitlement: “We all know and we agree / We’re the good ones obviously.” Heather Christian’s melody resounds as an aptly ambivalent resolution to this production — a remarkable endeavor, beautifully executed, with knots yet to untangle and rhymes yet to reason, and still a wildly discomfiting theatrical romp. Which is, I deeply believe, is as Molière should be.

See also:

• Theatremania’s Zachary Stewart praises the multi-dimensional rewards offered by this Tartuffe as “an unexpected delight, and absolutely the right call for a play that, all these centuries later, resists reinvention”;

• at The New York Times, arts/culture writer Tim Teeman talks to the cast of this Tartuffe about how their adventurous-yet-traditional staging endeavors to speak to the paradoxes of our cultural moment.

#178: A Theater of Death Christmas Carol

Adapted, Written & Directed by Joe West & Theater of Death • Madrid, NM : A Theater of Death Production, As Originally Broadcast on KMRD-LP 96.9 FM • December 2025.

Theater of Death — a theater and production company founded in 2014 by Joe West to explore and expand the horror/comedy tradition of Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol — offers its first audio theatre offering for the holidays with A Theater of Death Christmas Carol. (In 2018, I was able to catch their sixth production, Invasion! in person, and found its rousing mix of theatrical styles and pro-am skillsets to be both charming and compelling.) This year, building on the company’s longstanding interest in extraterrestrial alien visitor storylines, A Theater of Death Christmas Carol interpolates a sci-fi framing device for their audio-drama retelling of the Scrooge story. In it, a team of intergalactic explorers from Zeldar have been sent to “destroy the humans” due to their species’s demonstrated “absolute lack of a moral compass and their projected development in technology” which makes them a serious danger to other galaxies. One of the Zeldarian explorers, N’avi — a “young scientist of rare brilliance” (deftly voiced by Isabel Aguilar) — insists that the Zeldarians test humanity’s capacity for the spirit of giving using the Zeldarian “phantasm stimulator” and suggests Ebenezer Scrooge as a “worst case” human example. Thusly, as Scrooge is visited by the Christmas spirits of past, present and future (presumably due to the Zeldarian’s phantasm stimulator) Scrooge’s embrace of the spirit of giving rescues humanity from imminent destruction. The audio drama features a large cast of local performers, ambient sound effects, and compelling narration from Anita. (I was especially taken with the remarkable vocal performance of Corbin Magenta Claw Hoffman as the Ghost of Christmas Past, whose remarkable vocal presence activated both my imagination and emotions.) One of the Zeldarian’s later lines has had me giggling for much of the past week: “You believe that one man’s transformation on a Christmas morning could inspire an entire species year round?” The production — which balances the Dickens tale’s spooky charm with winningly original effect — aired “live” on KMRD-LP 96.9 on Christmas Eve and streams freely on-demand through the Theater of Death website and YouTube channel.1

See also:

• I have been unable to find any meaningful online journalistic or other “coverage” of Theater of Death’s 10+ years of endeavor but, if you’re curious, I might recommend the tax-deductible purchase of their recently self-published anthology, Theater of Death: The Early Years.

#179: The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Book, Music, & Lyrics by Rupert Holmes • Directed by Joey Rodriguez • Santa Fe, NM : Santa Fe Playhouse • December 2025.

My final show for 2025 was the Santa Fe Playhouse staging of Rupert Holmes’s 1980s oddity, The Mystery of Edwin Drood — the open-ended musical mystery that pays loving homage to the performance traditions of the 19th century British Music Hall. The Santa Fe Playhouse production lightly reconceptualizes this conceit by imagining this Drood as if it were performed by a traveling band of players trouping along the Santa Fe Trail in the late 19th century. This production concept is conveyed most evocatively conveyed by Bobby Goodrich’s amazing Santa Fe themed pageant cart, with the cast toggling between Victorian-English for the Drood scenes, and some version of Western twang for the beyond-Drood sequences. The committed, charismatic, and consistently talented cast played the gag through with verve. Of course, I was particularly curious how this “Drood in SantaFe” conceit would inform production’s handling of the perennially tricky question of how to present the ethnicity of the Landless siblings, who are ostensibly displaced “from Ceylon.” Notably, for “Drood in Santa Fe,” the Landless siblings’s scripted “exoticism” was underscored by costume, vocal, and dance flourishes that evoked flamenco performance — palmas, zapateados, quejio-ish vocal embellishments, etcetera — and, by extension, an implicit evocation of the gitano/roma historical roots in South Asia. I’m not sure the gesture registered for most audiences, nor am I confident it completely worked, but — thanks to the skilled performances of Sierra Jimenez as Helena Landless and David James García as Neville Landless — the flamenco-ish flourishes played well enough. Additional high-likes to the smartly conceptualized and expertly executed costumes by Emma Harrison and to Rikki Carroll’s unexpectedly dimensional comic flourishes often-played-as boilerplate ingenue soprano Rosa Bud. And it was great to conclude my theatregoing year in such an important and storied theatre in my home state.

See also:

• The Albuquerque Journal’s arts writer Logan Royce Beitman details how the Santa Fe Playhouse production of Drood “has added an additional layer of self-referential humor by setting the play, not in England, but in Santa Fe;”

• For more on the Playhouse, see freelance arts/culture writer Jennifer Levin’s 2022 account of the Santa Fe Playhouse’s remarkable history in El Palacio: Art, History, Culture of New Mexico.

TRANSPARENCY DISCLOSURES for #251231: I saw both Beau and Don’t Vape! at the invitation of the production and at no cost to myself.

WELCOME to #TheatreClique — my emphatically intermittent newsletter dedicated to encouraging you to click out to some of the most interesting, intriguing & noteworthy writing about drama, theatre & performance (at least, so says me)…

This Week's #TheatreCliquery:

This installment of #TheatreClique clicks out to pieces that consider the hard work of scaffolding an artistic legacy; the intrinsic value of a national theatre; and the ongoing efforts by actor-advocates to create healthful working conditions in the contemporary US/American theatre — plus commentary on recent productions Messy White Gays, The Ziegfeld Files, Oedipus, and Meet the Cartozians. And for this week’s opener, I lift the Seattle Men’s Chorus’s rendition of the post-Christmas classic, “The Twelve Days after Christmas” …and if clicking the embedded image below routes to an error message, try clicking here.

EDITOR’S NOTE: whenever possible, whenever linking to paywalled pieces, I try to “gift” the article to #TheatreClique readers. In other words, clicking out to articles in the New York Times, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Atlantic, and Wall Street Journal should neither present hassle nor burn through your current allotment of free views. Here’s hoping more outlets — hello LATimes! hi NewYorkMagazine! yo NewYorker!— adopt similar technologies for subscribers soon...

#NowClickThis…

Wherein I highlight a handful of the most click-worthy links I’ve encountered in the last few…

• the editors of American Theatre share a list of the 50 plays or musicals have been the most influential on the US/American theatre in the past 25 years as crowdsourced from their polling of more than three hundred theatremakers, leaders, scholars, and advocates;

  • in response to the list, at BroadwayWorld, arts advocate Howard Sherman explores the importance of the “the now-essential nature of not-for-profit theatre” in shaping US/American drama and “which finds the commercial world following – admittedly at times, with enormous success – the lead of the not-for-profits”;

• in a fascinating pair of articles from The Santa Fe New Mexican’s Alaina Mencinger and Gabrielle Porter explore the questions facing a generation of aging New Mexico artists: 1: What happens to their work when they die?; and 2: What should an artist consider when planning their estate?;

• at Be a Ladder Leader, theatremaker/advocate Nataki Garrett interrogates the unspoken underpinnings of a recent NYTimes article as “a case study in how comfort becomes policy — aesthetic, institutional, and ideological”;

• at The Atlantic, freelance arts/culture writer Tayla Zax evinces how the history of Ireland’s Abbey Theatre also offers “a persuasive story about what a national theater could have done—or still might do—for the United States”;

• at Equity News Magazine, freelance theatre/culture writer Nathan Pugh details the range of practices, techniques, and interventions used by Actors Equity members “to bring better mental health practices, accommodations and accountability into their workplaces”;

• at The New York Review of Books, scholar/curator Colin B. Bailey goes deep into the ways the paintings of Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) depict “the all-embracing humanity of commedia dell’arte” — (note: if the paywall thwarts you, here’s a pdf);

Thoughts from That One Theatregoer Who Likes Pretty Much Everything:

Wherein I offer capsule commentaries on what I liked best — my HIGH-LIKES if you will — about the shows I’ve recently engaged...

#171: Messy White Gays

Written by Drew Droege • Directed by Mike Donahue • NYC : Off-Broadway • The Duke on 42nd • December 2025.

After bathing in the neo-liturgical vibes of The F*ggots and Their Friends between Revolutions, I found myself craving a queer theatrical palate cleanser of sorts — something acidic to cut through the thickness of all that sincerity. So I decided to make a “happy hour” return visit to those Messy White Gays (aka a 5pm show, conveniently scheduled betwixt my afternoon matinee and my evening performance). As I re-witnessed the travails of Addison, Brecken, Caden, Thacker and Karl — an experience which largely echoed my first visit — I was struck by the fact that not only had Droege’s play somehow missed the memo about using “the F-word” in its title but also that Messy White Gays is doing something that the three very good, very arty F-word plays I saw in the last few months— figaro/f*ggots, Prince F*ggot, The F*ggots and Their Friends — just didn’t even seem to consider To wit: the option of (even temporarily) eschewing sincerity/seriousness in service of some scathingly funny satire. And, yes, this might be me just being another old queen pulling the “back in my day” card, but I guess I do like my emphatically gay plays — like the kind that put the F-word in the title — to balance their smarts, their style, their sincerity, their significance, and their sexiness with at least a splash of something screamingly funny. Ideally, something that makes me queasily uncomfortable at the fact that I actually laughed at this or that. (This might explain why David Greenspan’s early twirl as Prince F*ggot’s bewigged publicist remains maybe my most treasured bit in that show.) But all that being said: it’s extraordinary to have so many ambitious, varied, accomplished, emphatically “gay” new plays actually reckoning with the makings and meanings of queer masculinity in this fraught cultural/historical moment. More please. With a heavy dollop of something scathingly funny if you have it…

See also:

• PAPER’s Joan Summers talks to Droege about his “alchemical cocktail of cutting gay satire and specificity”;

• TheatreMania’s Pete Hempstead reminds us that Messy White Gays’s “characters are despicable, but the cast is to die for.”

#172: The Ziegfeld Files

Written and Read by Jesse Eisenberg • Directed by Shayok Misha Chowdhury • NYC : Off-Broadway • Studio Seaview • December 2025.

This strikingly effective new solo play written and read by Jesse Eisenberg was performed on the main platform of Prince F*ggot set at Studio Seaview. Originally slated for seven performances — running only on Prince F*ggot’s dark Monday nights — I was able to catch one of the Sunday night performances offered in is brief extension. And it seems that The Ziegfeld Files performed to capacity or near-capacity crowds for each of its ten performances, despite having no press coverage whatsover (at least none that I could/can find) and despite receiving no reviews beyond those posted on Show-Score. Even so, it was precisely The Ziegfeld Files’s “in full view but also under the radar” presentation strategy that caught my attention, far more than either Jesse Eisenberg’s ostensible celebrity or the play’s premise (“built from therapy tapes, a new father searches for connection”) would have. And, yet, The Ziegfeld Files proved to be among the more simply gratifying and emotionally vivid pieces I’ve encountered in some while. Eisenberg’s character is a socially-awkward people-pleasing new dad, whose lack of any immediate emotional connection to his newborn son has activated unexpectedly serious tensions in his relationship with the wife he loves so much. The couple has entered marriage counseling and, as part of his individual homework each week, he is to record himself talking to his therapist (but also himself) about his feelings for 10-15 minutes. And that’s it. These five or six monologues make the play. Eisenberg — as both actor and writer — use this simple structural scenario to map the emotional specificity of this character’s world with remarkable clarity and economy of movement. (He’s basically sitting at a small cluttered desk reading from the script the whole time, with Isabella Byrd’s deft lighting subtly cuing time of day and seasonal shifts.) Yet, somehow, by the end of this 70ish-minute piece, I was sniffling and wiping away tears right alongside a sizable portion of the audience. The Ziegfeld Files is a strikingly simple but emotionally captivating work of monologue-theatre, the sort that — if presented by Audible at Minetta Lane — I would say “listen for the audiobook when it’s out”… But neither Eisenberg nor StudioSeaview appear to have offered any hint as what the future of this piece will be, or whether this was simply a chance to buy tickets to witness a bespoke, intimate writing/performing exercise for Eisenberg…

See also:

• perhaps the only actual “coverage” of The Ziegfeld Files I’ve encountered anywhere comes in the form of this Instagram Reel from TheBroadwayReviewer;

#173: Oedipus

Written and Directed by Robert Icke, after Sophocles • NYC : Broadway • Studeio 54 • December 2025.

Oedipus is one of those plays that I’ve read, taught, studied, and discussed so many times that it’s easy to forget that I’ve never actually seen a performance of the actual play. (I’m also reminded that my high school theatre director really really really wanted me to take on the role in my senior year — so much that she hard-pitched the idea to me at the end of my junior year so that I could the summer to start on the project. For reasons I don’t recall, I declined. Fun fact: She found another rising senior a year or so later to take the bait.) Among the several adaptations of Oedipus that I have seen — Luis Alfaro’s pinto poetic Oedipus el Rey perhaps being my most memorable — Icke’s strikes me as among the most attentive to making the dramatic architecture of Sophocles’s original feel contemporary. For indeed, Icke’s reformulation of Oedipus as a modern political mystery/thriller both elaborates and distills the complex political context of the family tragedy at center in ways that prove to be both rewarding and accessible. And while “The 2nd Messenger Speech” remains perhaps maybe my favorite device of Greek Tragedy, not only does Icke’s decision to give those expository declarations to characters like Jocasta and Meropi give extraordinary actors like Lesley Manville and ninety-year-old (!?!) Anne Reid the chance to do all that they do but it also fortifies the palpably human dimensions of Oedipus’s world. Perhaps most notably, Icke’s humanization of Jocasta — largely through a horrifyingly plausible backstory for the character — recenters the heart of “the Tragedy of Oedipus” in ways that I suspect will, at least for the foreseeable, fundamentally transform how this play and its adaptations are understood. An impressive, accomplished, effective production.

See also:

• at BroadwayNews, freelance arts writer Ashley Lee talks to writer/director Robert Icke about recrafting a 2500+-year-old drama as a contemporary political thriller

  (note: if the paywall hits, here’s a pdf);

• at 4Columns, freelance culture writer/critic Rhoda Feng serves a deliciously smart, meticulously detailed review of Icke’s Oedipus — if you saw the production, and maybe especially if you did not, it’s a must read.

#174: Meet the Cartozians

Written by Talene Monahon • Directed by David Cromer • NYC : Off-Broadway • Second Stage at Signature Center, Irene Diamond • December 2025.

A deeply felt, deeply funny, deeply considered portrait of being Armenian in America over the last one hundred years. Talene Monahon’s play is as captivating as it is compelling, as intellectually substantial as it is genuinely entertaining — a thrilling new entry into the ever-evolving canon of “immigration plays” in US/American drama. (I was so taken by Monahon’s play that, on the trek home, I started mentally drafting a new syllabus of contemporary plays about immigration history/policy. Not sure I’ll ever teach that class but, in the the last few decades, playwrights have generated a startlingly rich repertoire indeed.) What I found so thrilling about Meet the Cartozians is that its simple but brilliant theatrical conceit centers the category of “whiteness” — as legal fiction, as cultural privilege, as national ideal, as hegemonic imperative, as inevitable (even ineffable) coordinate in any im/migrant’s ever-evolving journey toward being “American.” Indeed, by staging the first act in 1923, Monahon re/introduces the landmark immigration ruling in U.S. v Cartozian through its plaintiff Tatos Cartozian (a luminous Nael Nacer, in a marvel of a heart-opening performance) as he prepares for the legal fight to retain his naturalized citizenship against the government’s claims that, as an Armenian, he is not “white.” Monahon’s first act plays as a familiarly familial immigration drama with the varied personalities of Cartozian household trying their best to follow the often nonsensical but nonetheless apt legal guidance of their anxious American attorney Wallace McCamant (a pitch-perfect Will Brill). And this first act? It’s brilliant. Entertaining, instructive, thought-provoking. But then, after the act break, the action leaps forward one hundred years to 2023 and to an elaborately decorated Los Angeles home where the production company for one of the most famous women in the world has assembled four Armenian community leaders — a politician, a scholar, a philanthropist, an artist — to offer cultural perspective on the Armenian heritage of “The Celebrity.” The actors who play Act1’s 1923 Cartozian family are now 21st century Armenian Americans, each deeply committed to tending to and amplifying the Armenian community’s culture, history, and legacy. (Will Brill, too, is back — this time as the similarly anxious videographer charged with capturing the Armenian story for a mainstream audience.) With the clarion guidance of director Will Cromer, the actors make this shift — from the warm family drama of Act1 to Act2’s more satiric comedy of contemporary manners — with aplomb. And sustaining the play’s incisive criticality, Monahon threads several points of confusion/information — the location of Armenia, the timing of Armenian Christmas celebrations, the definition of whiteness, etcetera — between both acts, thereby underscoring how the questions raised by US v Cartozian remain as relevant as they are unresolved. The play’s concluding coda sees the long-awaited arrival of “The Celebrity” (a brilliant Tamara Sevunts, whose necessarily oblique evocation of Kim Khardashian balances upspeak, vocal fry, and tenderness and stands as a startlingly potent counter to her anchoring performance as sensible daughter Hazel in Act1). The Celebrity’s brief exchange with local politician Robert (played by Nael Nacer, Act1’s Tatos) evokes — through the mist of Nacer’s gaze — the layers of time, place, family, and identity that, as Meet the Cartozians reminds us, is at the heart of nearly every im/migration story. Special highlikes to the experience of witnessing Armenian American performer Andrea Martin show why she’s such a legend in tandem what should be a breakthrough performance for Sevunts. Timely, entertaining, moving, thought-provoking — here’s hoping that there will be many future opportunities for more audiences to Meet the Cartozians.

See also:

• Armenian Weekly’s Rosie (Toumanian) Nisanyan celebrates Meet the Cartozians because “it’s not every day that you get to see Armenian characters, stories or culture onstage — outside of an Armenian church or community center — let alone ones that feel so true to life and relatable”;

• at Nerds of Color, data scientist and culture writer Swara Salih talks to actor Susan Pourfar how being an actor of Iranian descent informs (and is informed by) her portrayal of Armenian characters in Meet the Cartozians.

TRANSPARENCY DISCLOSURES for #251226: I was among the 363 theatre folks asked by American Theatre to name the “10 titles they felt had been the most influential on the theatre in the past 25 years.” Unfortunately, I didn’t retain a copy of the ten titles I submitted so can’t with certainty name which (if any) of my nominations didn’t make the final list.